Railway Age: COLD COMFORT

Texas-based Whitmore Rail, a global provider of rail lubricants and friction modifiers, notes that the biggest changes it has seen are remote monitoring and the ability to shut down systems during extreme weather conditions, such as extreme cold and periods of heavy rain.

“In addition to the equipment,” the company says, “the product pumping through the equipment has changed from simple greases which would have a limited range of useful ambient temperature range to a range of products which have complex thickeners and either a blend of synthetic or pure synthetic base fluids. The new products are far better in low operating temperatures and allow the product to be effective at much higher temperatures.”

Whitmore has synthetic-based, all-season flange lubricants as well as solid sticks for flange lubricant and tread friction modifiers the company says “require no changes between summer and winter seasons. If a customer chooses to use mineral oil-based products, the changeover from summer to winter can be done by mixing our summer and winter products, which are fully compatible, and this eliminates the need to empty reservoirs. The timeframe to change over from summer to winter grades is quite long in most places. The changeover should occur when the ambient temperatures average below 85°F and above 25°F. This would give you a window of a few months in the fall to switch products.”

Read the full article here: RAILWAY AGE

https://issuu.com/railwayage/docs/railway_age_august_2020/1?e=5256929/79989412